italian_guy

I think kickboxing it is a good complement to any art. For grapplers because it adds striking skills and for strikers because it gives the chance to apply their skills to a fighting enviroment with certain rules (good for sport competition) that allow full contact fighting in a relatively safe enviroment (as safe as full contact can be).

I agree with that, I can add that there are MA that are more efficient to teach you self defence ( I mean your self-defence skill increase more rapidly with training time compared to other arts), I'm thinking about JKD, krav Maga, BJJ, JJJ, Muay Thai and even boxing and kickboxing. But all of them increase your chance of survival in a street confrontation (even Tai chi chuan if you do martial applications).

Yes, this is basically what's behind the label JKD. I did JKD for 1 month only (then the school closed for lack of students) combined with kali/escrima, it was a nice style, a sort of MMA geared for self-defence (not sport competitions) basically they were teaching, (in that first months), kicking and punching basics, escrima basics, case study self-defence. About lineage the instructor was part of an organization (AKEA) recognised by Dan Inosanto (it was started by an italian Inosanto disciple), who is well entitled to teach JKD I think.

Hi Man, welcome to KF about your speach you can select an item from the articles section, there are various item threated in deep there.

I think you can stick to goju ryu karate, maybe it is not the most efficient self-defence art but it is very complete and it is a solid base. If you want to cross-train you can choose one of the two you mentioned, with muay thai you will add extra striking skills and with BJJ you will have extra grappling skills. However since Goju ryu is mostly a striking art, if I was you I would cross-train in BJJ, but both solutions are good.

I also train in Goju ryu.

Don't be discouraged, you will regain a lot of agility as long as you train. BTW how old are you?

Congratulations!!! you did a great job.

Welcome, I'm also an old (43) beginner from Italy.

Congratulations, and keep going. Our journey is a long one. Osu!

Congratulations and good luck for your future in kumite.

I do goju ryu karate and Tai chi chuan. They are so different that you do not get confused and I think they complement each other well. I consider karate as my main art and tai chi as my complement, I think that tai chi training helps a lot on focus and give the habbit of staying loose. These things are useful on karate too. The only problem I have sometimes is confusing the etiquette... a few daya ago I placed my hands in the tipical chinese (kung fu) salutation at the beginning of my tai chi class and whispered Osu. Luckily nobody heard that!

Thanks for the link I will look throu those book.

Unfortunately I have nothing, but I'm also interested to see them

Good luck Ironberg, keep us posted

Yes very nice pictures.

Welcome to KF

That's the way to go! Welcome to KF and to martial arts

Welcome to the forum.

Hi Zoran, I visited the site of your school, looks nice. Welcome to KF!

Hello and welcome!

Welcome to KF then...

Hello and wlcome

Hi, welcome to KF.

Welcome back Emerson. Looking for a MA to practice?